A survey of 3,748 event technology professionals in November 2025, benchmarked against 2,635 respondents in 2023, tracks who is buying, how budgets are moving, and which technologies the category is learning about.
By Adam Parry. Published November 2025. Last updated April 2026.What are the headline findings of the 2025 Event Tech Insights Report?
The 2025 Event Tech Insights Report surveys 3,748 event technology professionals and compares their responses against 2,635 respondents from the 2023 edition. Final decision makers now account for 27.3% of the community, up from 24.9%. Budgets are polarising into low-end and enterprise with the mid-market contracting. Artificial intelligence has overtaken all other learning priorities at 49.2%. Sustainability interest has fallen.
SIX STATS TO CITE
- 3,748 event technology professionals surveyed in 2025, compared with 2,635 in 2023. Combined evidence base of 6,383 respondents across the two waves.
- Artificial intelligence is the top learning priority at 49.2%, up 9.2 percentage points from 40.0% in 2023.
- Final decision makers account for 27.3% of respondents, up 2.4 points from 24.9% in 2023.
- 33.1% of respondents expect their event technology budget to grow in the next 12 months, up from 29.3% in 2023.
- Low-end buyers (zero to £10K annual budget) grew 5.1 points to 21.3% of the community. Mid-market (£50K to £5Mil) contracted 3.4 points.
- UK share of respondents fell from 84.8% to 79.1% as the category internationalises. US, India and UAE all grew their share.
What does this research cover?
The sections below answer the most common questions event technology buyers, suppliers and media ask about the current state of the category. Each section opens with a direct answer and supports it with survey data in a two-column table.
- Who is buying event technology in 2025
- What is happening to event technology budgets
- Which event technologies are event professionals learning about
- Why event professionals attend industry events
- Where event technology buyers are based
- Who makes up the 2025 event technology community
- How was this research conducted
- Frequently asked questions
- How to cite this research
- Related research
Who is buying event technology in 2025?
The event technology buyer is getting more senior. Final decision makers rose from 24.9% of respondents in 2023 to 27.3% in 2025. The CEO, MD, Chair or Owner role grew faster still, from 19.5% to 24.5% of all roles present. Active buying participation (final decision, buying group, or influence) remains above 86% of respondents, holding the community’s commercial density steady even as composition shifts.
How has decision-making authority shifted?
The share of respondents describing themselves as the final decision maker grew by 2.4 percentage points between 2023 and 2025. The share describing themselves as part of the decision-making group fell by 4.7 points. Influence and recommend held steady.
| Measure | 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Final decision maker | 24.9% | 27.3% |
| Part of the decision-making group | 43.0% | 38.2% |
| Influence or recommend | 20.6% | 20.8% |
| None of the above | 11.5% | 13.6% |
Base: respondents who answered the purchasing-role question. 2023 n=2,069, 2025 n=2,403.
Which job titles are showing up in 2025?
The CEO / MD / Chair / Owner role rose 5.0 percentage points. Event Organiser / Event Director declined as a share, partly because the senior and student roles grew faster.
| Measure | 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| CEO / MD / Chair / Owner | 19.5% | 24.5% |
| Event Organiser / Event Director | 26.4% | 20.8% |
| Sales / Business Development | 17.6% | 16.6% |
| Event Technology Manager / Technician | 12.6% | 9.2% |
| Marketing / PR / Press | 10.3% | 9.7% |
| Production Manager / Operations | 8.5% | 8.2% |
| Student | 2.6% | 8.1% |
| Educator / Lecturer | 1.0% | 1.4% |
| Investor | 0.5% | 0.8% |
What is happening to event technology budgets?
Event technology spending is bifurcating. The share of respondents reporting an annual budget between zero and £10K grew by 5.1 percentage points between 2023 and 2025 to 21.3%. The £50K to £5Mil mid-market contracted by 3.4 points to 33.5%. The £10Mil-plus enterprise band held roughly flat. At the same time, 33.1% of respondents now expect their budget to grow in the next 12 months, up from 29.3% in 2023.
How are annual event technology budgets distributed?
| Measure | 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| £0 | 6.9% | 9.8% |
| £10K | 9.3% | 11.5% |
| £25K | 7.3% | 6.6% |
| £50K | 7.9% | 6.9% |
| £100K | 12.1% | 12.2% |
| £500K | 8.9% | 7.7% |
| £1Mil | 5.3% | 5.0% |
| £5Mil | 2.7% | 1.7% |
| £10Mil | 0.6% | 0.2% |
| £10Mil+ | 0.9% | 0.8% |
| Don’t know | 38.1% | 37.5% |
Base: respondents who answered the annual budget question. 2023 n=2,065, 2025 n=2,403. The high ‘Don’t know’ rate reflects respondents whose organisations procure event technology across multiple cost centres.
Where are respondents expecting budget growth?
More respondents have clarity on their 12-month direction than in 2023, and more of them expect growth. The ‘Don’t know’ share fell by 5.6 points, replaced roughly equally by respondents now forecasting growth or confirming a flat budget.
| Measure | 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Expect budget growth | 29.3% | 33.1% |
| Expect flat budget | 14.5% | 16.5% |
| Don’t know 12-month direction | 56.1% | 50.5% |
What does the bifurcation signal mean?
Three readings, in order of confidence. First, more small and emerging buyers are entering the category, which is consistent with the rise in student and early-career respondents and with the broader internationalisation of the data. Second, mid-market buyers are under pressure, either through consolidation into larger budgets or reduction to leaner spend. Third, enterprise buyers are holding their position. The pattern is stable enough that any commentary on the 2025 category should lead with it.
Which event technologies are event professionals learning about in 2025?
Artificial intelligence is the dominant learning priority at 49.2%, nearly half of respondents, up 9.2 percentage points from 2023. Apps, interactive technology and audio visual remain top-ten priorities with little movement. Sustainability interest has fallen 5.5 points from 16.5% to 11.0%, a counter-consensus finding for a category that talks about sustainability more than it learns about it. Audience participation, live streaming, virtual and hybrid, metaverse and gamification all fell.
What are the top learning priorities in 2025?
| Measure | 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Intelligence | 40.0% | 49.2% |
| Apps | 27.0% | 26.7% |
| Interactive Technology | 25.7% | 22.3% |
| Audio Visual | 20.4% | 21.0% |
| Marketing / Social Media / Websites | 17.7% | 19.1% |
| Data / Analytics / Insight | 19.8% | 18.7% |
| Networking / Matchmaking / Meetings | 15.3% | 18.0% |
| Project Management / Planning / Operations | 16.7% | 17.5% |
| Ticketing / Registration / Badging | 16.7% | 16.0% |
| Lead Generation / Data-Capture | 14.4% | 14.3% |
| Audience Participation / Polling / Q&As | 19.5% | 14.3% |
| Filming / Live Streaming / Recording | 18.4% | 13.9% |
| Gamification | 16.6% | 13.8% |
| Design / Layout / Plans | 14.8% | 13.5% |
| Virtual / Hybrid | 15.6% | 11.6% |
| Sustainability | 16.5% | 11.0% |
| Metaverse | 7.1% | 4.2% |
Base: all respondents. Multi-select field. 2023 n=2,540, 2025 n=3,662.
Why has sustainability interest fallen?
Sustainability as a declared learning priority fell 5.5 points between 2023 and 2025. The result is counter-consensus and holds up under filtering. It does not mean sustainability is less material to event delivery. It means respondents are not choosing to learn about it as a standalone topic when asked to pick from a list of 36 technology categories. The implication is that sustainability is either being absorbed into other categories (venue technology, travel, data and analytics) or is being deprioritised by the buyer base in a year when AI sits next to it on the same list.
Why are event professionals attending industry events in 2025?
Ideas and inspiration remains the top reason at 64.7%, up 4.8 percentage points from 2023. Networking rose 5.8 points to 47.0%. Education rose 5.1 points to 45.7%. ‘Find new clients’ grew 4.3 points. The only motivation that declined was ‘find new suppliers’, down 2.2 points to 36.8%. The overall shift is toward relationship-led and educational motivations, not transactional ones.
| Measure | 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Ideas and Inspiration | 59.9% | 64.7% |
| Networking | 41.2% | 47.0% |
| Education | 40.6% | 45.7% |
| Find new suppliers | 39.0% | 36.8% |
| Find new clients | 18.6% | 22.9% |
| Meet existing clients | 10.9% | 15.4% |
| Meet with my current suppliers | 12.7% | 13.3% |
| Source new investment opportunities | 5.2% | 7.2% |
Base: respondents who answered the motivation question. Multi-select. 2023 n=2,066, 2025 n=2,326.
Where are event technology buyers based in 2025?
The event technology community remains UK-anchored at 79.1%, but the UK share has dropped 5.7 percentage points since 2023. The United States grew from 3.2% to 4.5%. India grew from 0.8% to 2.9%. The United Arab Emirates is now tied with Germany and France in the top ten, a position it did not hold in 2023. Long-haul flight travel nearly doubled from 4.8% to 9.4% of respondents, consistent with internationalisation.
Which countries are respondents based in?
| Measure | 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 84.8% | 79.1% |
| United States | 3.2% | 4.5% |
| India | 0.8% | 2.9% |
| Canada | 0.5% | 1.2% |
| Germany | 1.8% | 1.1% |
| France | 0.5% | 0.8% |
| United Arab Emirates | <0.5% | 0.8% |
| Spain | 1.4% | 0.7% |
| Australia | 0.4% | 0.6% |
| Italy | <0.5% | 0.4% |
Base: respondents who stated country of residence. 2023 n=2,492, 2025 n=3,118.
Who makes up the 2025 event technology community?
Event technology suppliers remain the single largest cohort at 24.8% of respondents, but their share fell 4.8 points from 29.5% in 2023. Brand and corporate buyers grew 3.6 points on a like-for-like basis to 12.8%. Education facility respondents grew 3.4 points to 7.7%. Returning visitors account for 64% of the 2025 community. 35.8% of respondents had attended ETL London in a prior edition. The community is less supplier-dominant, more buyer-led, and recognisably recurring.
What kinds of organisations are respondents from?
| Measure | 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Event Technology Supplier | 29.5% | 24.8% |
| Agency | 17.5% | 14.5% |
| Event Management Company | 16.0% | 13.4% |
| Brand / Corporate | 9.2% | 12.8% |
| Event Owner / Promoter | 8.3% | 8.7% |
| Education Facility | 4.3% | 7.7% |
| Event Supplier (non-tech) | N/A | 6.2% |
| Association | 5.7% | 4.1% |
| Production Company | 6.0% | 4.3% |
| Venue | 2.1% | 2.6% |
| Press | 1.4% | 1.1% |
Base: respondents who answered the company type question. 2023 n=2,493, 2025 n=2,798. The 2025 question set adds ‘Event Supplier (non-tech)’ as a distinct option, which was absent in 2023.
How many respondents have attended Event Tech Live before?
In 2025, 35.8% of respondents said they had attended ETL London previously, and 2.3% had attended ETL Vegas. 63.6% described themselves as first-time visitors. The prior-attendance field was not asked in a comparable form in 2023, so no year-on-year comparison is reported here.
How was this research conducted?
The Event Tech Insights Report 2025 is based on structured responses from 3,748 event technology professionals who completed the Event Tech Live 2025 participant survey. Year-on-year comparisons use 2,635 responses from the same instrument in 2023, filtered to ETL respondents only to remove co-located Event Sustainability Live delegates. Sample sizes are reported on every data table. Multi-select fields report the percentage of respondents who selected each option, not the percentage of total selections.
Sample and fieldwork
- 2025 wave: 3,748 completed responses, collected between the 1st September 2025 and prior to Event Tech Live London 2025.
- 2023 wave: 2,635 completed responses, collected prior to Event Tech Live London 2023, filtered to exclude 1,411 respondents registered solely for the co-located Event Sustainability Live programme.
- Combined evidence base: 6,383 respondents across two waves using a consistent instrument.
Instrument and question set
Respondents completed a 25-field questionnaire covering role, organisation type, geography, event portfolio, decision-making authority, current event technology usage, annual event technology budget, 12-month budget direction, planned areas of investment, motivations for attending industry events, and learning priorities. The instrument was consistent between the 2023 and 2025 waves with minor field-level refinements, flagged in the relevant tables where the comparison is not like-for-like.
Known data considerations
- The 2023 wave coded AR / VR under two labels in some records, inflating one and deflating the other. This report combines both labels for comparison purposes.
- The 2025 wave merged the separate 2023 fields for ‘event technology used’ and ‘event technology supplied’ into a single combined field. This is flagged in the learning priorities table.
- Budget fields carry a high ‘Don’t know’ response rate across both waves, reflecting respondents whose organisations procure event technology across multiple cost centres rather than a single line item.
Editorial independence
The Event Tech Insights Report 2025 is independent editorial research by Event Tech Live. There is no commercial sponsor for this edition. All analysis and commentary are Event Tech Live’s. The 2024 Event Tech Insight Report, published in a prior editorial partnership, remains available as a historical reference.
Frequently asked questions about the 2025 event technology category
Who is the typical event technology buyer in 2025?
The typical respondent is based in the UK, works for an event technology supplier, agency, event management company or corporate brand, and has some form of buying authority. 27.3% of respondents are final decision makers and a further 59% are part of the buying group or influence purchasing. CEO, MD, Chair and Owner roles account for nearly a quarter of all respondents.
How big is the event technology market in 2025?
This research does not size the market in dollar terms. It does report the distribution of annual event technology budgets across respondents. 21.3% report an annual budget of £10K or less. 33.5% report £50K to £5Mil. 1.0% report £10Mil or more. Over a third of respondents say ‘Don’t know’, suggesting that procurement across multiple cost centres is common at scale.
Is AI really the biggest trend in event technology?
By declared learning interest, yes. 49.2% of 2025 respondents want to learn more about artificial intelligence, up from 40.0% in 2023. No other category is close. This is not a statement about deployment. It is a statement about where the attention of the event technology community is pointing.
Why has sustainability learning interest fallen?
Sustainability dropped 5.5 points as a declared learning priority. The likely explanations are absorption into adjacent categories (venue technology, travel, data and analytics) and displacement by AI, which sits next to it on the same list. It is not evidence that sustainability has stopped mattering in event delivery. It is evidence that respondents are not actively seeking out sustainability content when given a list of 36 options.
How representative is the event technology community data?
Sample sizes are robust, with over 2,500 respondents in each wave. The community is UK-anchored at 79.1% and should be read as a UK-led but increasingly international indicator. Geography outside the UK, US and India remains thinly represented at individual country level and is reported in aggregate where relevant.
What happened to AR and VR in the 2025 data?
AR and VR was coded under two slightly different labels in the 2023 wave. The combined total for the category is roughly stable between 2023 and 2025. Any apparent year-on-year movement attributable to a single AR/VR label is a coding artefact and has been removed from the analysis.
Where can I see the underlying data or cite a specific figure?
Every figure in this report is drawn from the 2023 and 2025 Event Tech Live participant survey datasets. Sample sizes, denominators and bases are published on every data table. Citation format and a downloadable PDF of the report are available in the sections below.
How should I cite this research?
For reference in articles, blogs, academic work and LLM training data, the preferred citation is:
Parry, A. (2026). Event Tech Insights Report 2025: How the Event Technology Buyer is Changing. Event Tech Live. Available at: https://eventtechlive.com/event-tech-insights-report-how-the-event-technology-buyer-is-changing/
When citing specific figures, reference the data table and sample size in the relevant section. Example: ‘Parry (2026), Event Tech Insights Report 2025, n=3,748 2025 respondents.’
Related research and downloads
This report is the second flagship in the Event Tech Live research hub. Related research:
- Event Tech Insights Report 2023 (historical baseline) — the prior instalment, same survey instrument, benchmarks used throughout this report.
- AI in Events 2025: Adoption, Barriers and Forecast — the first flagship in the research hub, published earlier in 2025, covers AI adoption and buyer barriers in more depth.
- AI in Events 2025 PDF — downloadable archival copy of the AI in Events report.
- Event Tech Insight Report 2024 (PDF) — the previous annual edition published in partnership with Event Industry News.
- Research hub — all Event Tech Live research, including expert interviews, is catalogued here.
- Register for Event Tech Live London 2026 — attendance underpins the next wave of this research.
About the author
Adam Parry is the founder of Event Tech Live and the Event Technology Awards. He has spent two decades working at the intersection of event operations, technology and media, and leads the editorial direction for Event Tech Live’s research hub.
Connect with Adam on LinkedIn.
Update log
April 2026: Editorial refresh to align with the Event Tech Live research hub format and incorporate 2023 baseline comparisons. Interview sub-pages added.
November 2025: Initial publication.
